Advances in Pig Genomics and Functional Gene Discovery.pdfVIP

Comparative and Functional Genomics Comp Funct Genom 2003; 4: 266–270. Published online 1 April 2003 in Wiley InterScience (). DOI: 10.1002/cfg.261 Conference Review Advances in pig genomics and functional gene discovery Max F. Rothschild* Department of Animal Science, Center for Integrated Animal Genomics, Iowa State University Ames, IA 50011, USA *Correspondence to: Abstract Max F. Rothschild, 2255 Kildee Hall, Department of Animal Advances in pig gene identification, mapping and functional analysis have continued Science, Iowa State University, to make rapid progress. The porcine genetic linkage map now has nearly 3000 loci, Ames, IA 50011, USA. including several hundred genes, and is likely to expand considerably in the next few E-mail: mfrothsc@ years, with many more genes and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers being added to the map. The physical genetic map is also growing rapidly and has over 3000 genes and markers. Several recent quantitative trait loci (QTL) scans and candidate gene analyses have identified important chromosomal regions and individual genes associated with traits of economic interest. The commercial pig industry is actively using this information and traditional performance information to improve pig production by marker-assisted selection (MAS). Research to study the co-expression of thousands of genes is now advancing and methods to combine these approaches to aid in gene discovery are under way. The pig’s role in xenotransplantation and biomedical research makes the study of its genome important